


Conflict

by regulusrules



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: BAMF Nymphadora Tonks, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Horcrux Hunting, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Order of the Phoenix Bashing (Harry Potter), POV Andromeda Black Tonks, Regulus Black Deserves Better, The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:41:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25727584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regulusrules/pseuds/regulusrules
Summary: Being prepared to die is normal; some people are confronted with the aspect of death quite soon in their lives.Being prepared to die with an agenda tugging down your throat, however, is a whole other level of undeniable torture.And Regulus Black knew the exact extent of that pain.•|∆❝ 𝑰𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝑹𝒆𝒈𝒖𝒍𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆. ❞
Relationships: Regulus Black & Andromeda Black Tonks, Regulus Black & Nymphadora Tonks, Regulus Black & Sirius Black
Comments: 8
Kudos: 132





	Conflict

“Why are you here?”

“Is my presence that disturbing?”

“Well, forgive me for not dancing with joy at the mere sight of the Black’s greatest Death Eater.” said Andromeda Tonks, glaring at her once beloved cousin.

It was 1979; the year when everything in Andromeda’s life started escaping its normalcy. The war was becoming more and more intense by then, and fear became a natural trait for every non-Voldemortic that Andromeda and probably everyone else feared their entire life would remain like that.

Waiting for her husband to return from his work in one piece one night, which was the normal prayer of hers these days, Andromeda suddenly found someone knocking on her front door in a rhythm she knew by heart.

But when she opened the door, a dull hollow feeling replaced her worry.

“I came for peace, not war.” her unwanted visitor said.

“The war between us began ever since you chose that road, Regulus.” she said despondently, staring at his frame after a prolonged duration of not seeing him.

Long matted hair and dullness occupied his once lively eyes. It shocked her to the core, for no matter how angry she was at him, she couldn’t help but soften towards him– but she subtly concealed it.

“And I came to end it.” Regulus Black replied calmly.

“Unlikely.”

“Listen, Andromeda,” Regulus then said firmly, in an imploring way more of an unpleasant one. “I _will_ tell you what I came here to tell you and you _will_ hear me out whether you like it or not. So please, let us just overstep this juvenile bickering and return to our damned situation.”

“What do you want, Regulus?” she asked after a few moments of hesitation.

“Information.”

“About what?”

“About the known ancient artefacts. Do you know anything about the most famous ones and their whereabouts?” he inquired.

“Why should I tell you?” Andromeda asked him sceptically. “You might just be luring me into helping your Death Eater businesses.”

Regulus then sighed and beseechingly said, “For the sake of our friendship and childhood, Andromeda, I am asking you to help me and just accept that I cannot answer any questions.”

Andromeda then gave him another hesitant look, and all he could do was honestly and agonisingly say, “I’m losing time, Andy, and you’re the only one who could help me right now.”

“Why not Sirius? I happen to know that he told you to come to him if you needed anything.” she asked quizzically, even though she’d already decided to help him.

“I will endanger his life even more if I seek his help right now. You, on the other hand, are not in that damned Order, thus impervious to greater harm.”

“Fine,” Andromeda said at last. “I know that every Hogwarts Founder had a special artefact. Rowena Ravenclaw had a diadem for example, which swells the wisdom of whoever wears it. But it is said that it has been lost long ago though.”

“What did Slytherin own?” Regulus asked curiously.

“A locket.”

“Do you know who last had it?”

“A descendant from the family. Most probably a Gaunt.” she shrugged.

“The Dark Lord’s mother was a Gaunt, right?” he asked, with a dangerous glint in his eyes that sparkled for a moment before disappearing, which Andromeda had nearly forgotten.

“You are scaring me, Regulus,” she said quietly, “What are you up to?”

Regulus sighed and rubbed his tired eyes. “I’ve already told you, Andromeda, I really can’t divulge anything at all. Just— just trust me.”

“I’m not asking to satisfy my curiosity, Regulus, I’m asking because I’m worried about you.”

“Don’t be.” he said stiffly.

“Are you trying to defect?” she asked softly after a few seconds and Regulus quietened for a moment as if the tape of his entire life was being rolled in front of his eyes, revealing all his decisions and all his mistakes, making him anxious and doubtful of what his once beloved cousin would think of him and whether he should just tell her the truth and be done from the weight of yet another person on his guilty conscience.

But the moment he opened his mouth to reply– the moment of either pure honesty or deceit, a sprinting six years old Nymphadora Tonks appeared.

“Reggieee I missed you!” she said, clutching his leg and hugging it tightly.

“Oh Dora, I’ve missed you too.” he said, his eyes softening and leaving everything else behind as soon as he’d caught sight of her, and he bent down to heave her in his arms.

“You look like my old torn dummy.” she said, frowning from his state and Regulus looked at Andromeda merrily.

“Is that how you’ve taught your daughter to give compliments, Andy? Because I’m quite sure I’ve heard better before.” he told her, and she snickered slightly while raising her palms innocently, indicating that it was not her problem.

“Thanks, Dora.” he said sarcastically, looking back to Nymphadora and smiling at the innocence radiating from her being.

She then grinned back for a second, but a small frown appeared on her young face once more.

“Why did you stop coming?” she asked poutingly.

“I was a little busy, I’m sorry.” Regulus said, sincerely regretful.

“You can visit us now though?” she asked, her eyes brightening with hope.

Regulus just smiled.

“I’ll try.”

“Good!” Nymphadora grinned, as if her biggest dream has just been fulfilled. “Do you want to see what I can do? Mummy taught me a lot of new things!”

“Go on!” he replied enthusiastically.

And so Nymphadora started showing him different shades of hair colours along with different facial expressions, all while he gave her his full attention, trying not to waste nor forget any moment from that unfamiliar joy. In the meantime, Andromeda kept staring at him with reminiscent eyes.

Regulus was always the logical one, the peaceful one, and the merriest. Her relationship with him was always unbreakable. Less strong than her relationship with Sirius, but unbreakable nevertheless. The only problem resided in his fear of rebellion. He had a beautiful pure heart which made hers ache when she knew that it started getting tainted by their own bigoted family.

She knew though that no matter what happens with his life, and no matter how passive he was, he would always return to what was right and will do it.

Ever since Andromeda had defied from their family, Regulus kept in touch with her discreetly, unlike Sirius who bragged about it and ended up with a bruise every time afterwards. He was sad and disappointed at the beginning though, distinctively sensing the conflict of who was right in her situation and who wasn’t. But as he grew up and realised that she was truly elated, he was secretly but sincerely happy for her.

And of course, no amount of joy could have overflowed the happiness he had felt when she gave birth. He had visited her that day, and instead of trying to ease her pain by laughing with her or anything Sirius-esque, he broke down into tears about how beautiful Nymphadora _(he was the one who suggested that name weeks before and resulted in him crying even more when he knew that they actually chose it)_ was, and how one day he’ll either persuade Andromeda and Edward to give her to live with him, or simply kidnap her and run away.

Sirius, on the other hand, had a completely different reaction, which made it very hard for an outsider to believe that these two were actually brothers. Being the mischievous person he was, he tried to discover his second cousin’s potentials in mischief making, which resulted in him being punched in the face by his overprotective younger brother and Andromeda shaking her head tiredly at their immaturity.

And despite the tiredness and the pain Andromeda was feeling then, she did not want to even _blink_ so she wouldn’t miss a single second from that beautiful blessed day. She wanted to remember how beautiful it had felt to be surrounded by people that genuinely cared about her, without any tension or sadness consuming them. She wanted to remember the feeling of family, because her instinct told her that it would come to an inevitable end.

And as usual, her intuition was right.

“— come back, right?” Andromeda heard her little daughter say, after snapping out from her nostalgic mind.

“I promise I will try to, Dora, but I do have to go right now. You know how much I love you, right?” Regulus asked Nymphadora, who was currently seated on his lap.

“Yes. And I love you more!” she said, hugging him once more even more tightly, and Regulus bent his head down to nuzzle her face in his for a moment.

Tightening his grip on Nymphadora, Regulus closed his eyes, and was relieved that she wasn’t able to see the single tear slipping away from his eye.

But of course Andromeda saw it, and her heart ached because she knew that that tear meant so much more.

He then stood up after discreetly wiping that tear away, and smiled to Nymphadora, who was still in his arms but was looking at him with a wide grin on her face, and said, “You’ll take care of yourself, Mummy and Daddy in the meantime for me, right?”

“Right!”

“No misbehaving?”

“Right!”

“No mischief?”

“Awww no! Siri will be upset!”

“Dora...” Regulus said as firmly as he could manage and she pouted.

“I’ll try.”

“Good.” he smiled as he kissed her cheek and put her on the ground.

“But no promises!” she sang and started running.

“DORA!” Regulus shouted and only received a high pitched laugh from upstairs.

“I _swear_ you should murder Sirius for his terrible influence on her, Andy!” Regulus told Andromeda, who was laughing in her own world, too.

“Right.” Andromeda replied, repeating her daughter’s word from before and both started laughing again.

After a while, when the laughter had ceased, Regulus stared blankly at the window and said, “I’ve truly missed and needed this, Andromeda. Thank you for allowing me in here when no one else in your position would have.”

“You’re my little brother, Regulus, of course you’re always welcomed here,” she responded gingerly, going closer to him and grasping his shoulder in a grounding manner. “I was just amazed that you would actually support these people and what they are doing.”

“Sometimes, you just have to experience the thing yourself to actually believe that it is wrong.” Regulus said distantly.

“And do you now?” Andromeda asked, but he did not answer.

He just leaned closer to her, and when he was directly in front of her, he kissed her head for — unbeknown to her — the last time ever.

“Goodbye, Andy.” he murmured, and then slowly walked away.

A week later, when Andromeda was informed of his inexplicable death, she knew the reply of her unanswered question.

**Author's Note:**

> feedback is my patronus! ◕ᴗ◕


End file.
